Hungry prayers - Fasting to Unite and Amplify
Fasting • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro:
Last week Bill introduced the idea of fasting as a spiritual practice for seeking God and increasing our desire for Him. He acknowledged the long held practices of fasting in the biblical traditions of both Jewish and Christian traditions - and also that it is a feature of human civilization in general - from traditional North American Indiginous practices, Buddhists, to the Islamic world currently fasting in Ramadan. The reasons vary from practical to spiritual but the capacity for gaining mastery over your body and desires is a thread that runs through all of them.
The fact that many North American Christians are unfamiliar with fasting as a normative practice of faith is probably an indicator that we are often better students of our capitalist, consumer culture whose official religion is: “I NEED MORE” than of our bibles or church history.
This past week, on Ash Wednesday we entered the season of LENT which is a season of fasting and preparation as we approach Easter. Traditionally the time spent in fasting or obstaining from various distrations is to increase the time and intentionality we put into seeking God. Intentionally searching our hearts, repenting as we have need, renewing our committment to follow Jesus, asking for guidance to live in a way that serves the purposes of God’s coming Kingdom and renewing our sense of expectancy that He is returning soon and we live as those prepared at any moment.
FASTING AS A DISRUPTION:
First, let’s just state the obvious. There’s nothing convenient or maybe even desirable about corporate fasting. By definition it is disruptive. Often there is a sense of some urgency - that God is willing to act and so our full attention needs to be on Him and so, for a time, the community stops, and reshuffles its priorities to make listening to God and responding obediently center stage in their life together.
I’ve sort of collected most of the biblical corporate fasts I could find under a few categories:
The emergency distruption - “We don’t know what to do!”
The scheduled distruption - “We remember what you’ve done”
The expectant disruption - “What would you have us do?”
These are my labels but I think they’re helpful in seeing how prayer and fasting together might shape a community. And, everytime I say fasting I also mean prayer. As Bill mentioned last week fasting is really a kind of “praying with our bodies” that helps us as we also pray with our minds and spirits. The body prayers sometimes come in the form of growling tummies, cravings, or a sense of hunger. We turn these prayers back towards God saying: We need you more than food, more than other desires. Food satisfies for a short time but you satisfy our greater needs. The hunger of the body increases the hunger for God and clarifies and sharpens the prayer.
THE EMERGENCY DISRUPTION:
The bible records a number of communal fasts that happen as a response to an external threat
Jehoshaphat - 2 Chronicles 20
We spoke about a couple of weeks back. Israel was attacked by a huge army of allied enemies. He calls a fast and everyone comes to Jerusalem to pray together.
Key phrase: “We don’t know what to do but our eyes are on you.”
God responds through a prophet with directions of what to do. They march to the field as though to battle but the enemy has already destroyed one another in a confusion sent by God.
Esther - Esther 4
In the book of Esther, c. 486 BC, the young Jewish girl finds herself the one chosen from a large selection of women to marry the powerful King Xerxes (in Hebrew Ahasuerus) after his former wife was dismissed for bruising his ego and resisting his power in front of his court.
Ridiculously wealthy (his region stretched from India to Ethopia) but not always scrupulous or wise, Xerxes was convinced by his advisor, Haman, to sign a law that would call for a scheduled extermination of all Jews in his vast region. Haman’s feud with Esther’s uncle Mordecai who, as a Jew, would not bow to honor Him, was the reason for Haman’s petty revenge via genocide.
Mordecai’s public grief on hearing of this edit presses on Esther the urgency to try to intercede for her people with the King. This is risky as entering the Kings presence unbidden was a potential death sentence. Esther agrees to take on the risk but calls a fast among all the Jews in Susa to ask God to prepare the way for her.
Key phrase: Esther 4:14-16
For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,
“Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”
When the time comes the King receives her into his court and she is able to communicate the unjust law and implicate Haman as a villianous advisor granting the Jews the right to bear arms to protect themselves from the genocide.
This historic deliverance of the Jews is still celebrated as Purim - in fact, beginning at sundown this Thursday.
Ezra
After 70 years of exile Ezra the priest has permission to take a remenant of Jews back to Jerusalem to try to rebuild what was destroyed by the Babylonians. The people are hesitant and the journey long and dangerous with the potential of enemy attacks along the way. Instead of asking for a miliatary entourage to protect them (which Ezra felt would be and embarrasing way to start their new life of independance) Ezra calls the people to a fast.
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods.
For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.”
So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.
God responds to the humility and dependance that a fast requires. Even when the prayer is coming from people who are normally seen as enemies of the God of Israel. When the prophet Jonah is sent to Nineveh - the capitol of an oppressive empire - to preach to them about God’s intention to destroy them for their evil legacy they immediately respond with humility and repentance.
Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water,
but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
And that brings up an important point. God responds to FAITH. In this instance the faith of a people not normally willing to serve God. Their responsiveness to his warning opens up the ability for Him to bless them. The value of fasting and prayer isn’t in not eating persay. The value is that as one voice a body of people say: “I believe that God will help us. We acknowledge His greatness, our need, and appeal to His merciful nature. It’s a step away from the self-sufficientcy that is our norm and that often tempts us to pursue our body/will desires over God’s desires.
Corporate fasting is the whole people renewing a commitment to say: “We are God’s people and we will live under his leadership.”
When we are willing to follow God’s lead he is able to bless us - because all of creation thrives when humans act as stewards of the earth restrained and geverned by the boundaries of God’s eternal wisdom and law and not just acting on our own short sighted impulses and desires.
SCHEDULED FASTS:
This brings us to scheduled fasts:
The emphasis of a scheduled fast is remembering what God has already done. It’s a built in “reset” on the calendar because people are, as the hymn says, “prone to wander”. Our desires will always push for ourselves to be center.
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
James paints this picture of how our warring passions cause division and strife among people. His emphasis is that instead of fighting one another for what we need we could choose to ask God and recieve from him what is best (which, of course may not be exactly what we think we want) but can be trusted to serve us better over time.
Scheduled fasts are designed to help the whole community remember together that God has done great things for them in the past and will be faithful in the future if we continue together under his lead. It reminds us of who we are and who he is. It rehearses the shared history, values, and mission together so that we don’t forget who we are.
Lent is a scheduled fast. As you participate in lent right now you are joining with much of the Body of Christ globally, and throughout history in the anticipation of what God has done in resurrecting Christ from the dead. Lent is a period for repentance, reflecting on sin - both individual and corporate, remembering the personal cost Jesus paid for our salvation and moving in grateful humility towards him.
Lent isn’t a biblical requirement - it was a routine developed early in the history of the Church to give some rhythm to our life together. But it is certainly a tradition informed and adapted by early Christians from the God ordained feasts of Israel that we find in Leviticus as part of the Body of law that Moses brought down from Sinai from the presence of God.
As a people God knew they would need anchors to remember the “BIG WHY” of their existence as God’s Covenant partners to bring blessing to the nations. While Passover had a restriction against leavened bread it was more about remembering what God had done to save Israel from slavery in Egypt, The Day of Atonement, however was centered on humility and repentance:
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
“Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord.
And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God.
For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people.
Afflicting your self - is restricting bodily pleasures (including food) for a period of time to acknowledge sin and present themselves humbly before God.
THE PROBLEM WITH SCHEDULED FASTS:
While the purpose of the scheduled fast is to remind us of our center in God there is also a potential danger to participate in these things without the humility that they are meant to create. FORCED communal participation in any religious act creates the opportunity for doing the outward act with inward pride. Instead of humbling ourselves before God and adjusting our inner life to His will - we can keep ourselves and our will at the center and just outwardly pretend we are serving God through whatever religious acts are deemed “right” by that community. For us in the Salvation Army I have heard many, many stories about the wearing of uniforms functioning in this religious way. What is designed to be “and outward sign of an inward committment to Christ” just became (for some) and outward sign that of my personal status in a community that bolstered pride. You cannot always tell from someone’s outward action whether inwardly they are positioned as humble servants of God or chasing their own will. Over time...the fruit will show…
And so, while scheduled fasts can be helpful in a community if it draws us together in mutual humility before God and partnership with one another it is the inner life of growing FAITH that God is interested and which God rewards.
“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.
‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers.
Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
Fasting not accompanied by obediance to God is useless. The inconsistency of appearing before God with religious acts without intending to live before him in peace, justice, and care for the poor is an oxymoron. The people of God respond to God with obediance.
I have found that God tends to speak...and then wait for our obediance to speak again. If you have not acted in obedience to the last thing He has told you then you may not be ready for the next.
And for us, at CHT, I think there’s a good chance that this united committent to corporate prayer may be the obediance we need to walk in before God will give us the grace for the next steps.
FASTING AS EXPECTANT SEEKING:
The final way I want to draw our attention to corporate prayer & fasting in the bible is how it is often used at a crossroads - where the people of God need to hear from God “what is next”. It is particularly a feature of decision making in the early Church and has been a key element of God’s movement through His Church throughout history.
HERE ARE THREE KEY LAUNCHPOINT MOMENTS FOR THE CHURCH:
After Jesus’ ascended to heaven and the disciples were alone there was a “what’s next” moment. Jesus hadn’t left detailed instructions - wanting them to learn how to rely on His Spirit to continue to lead them so they started with prayer:
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.
And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James.
All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
And this is the where they are still centered 7 days later at Pentecost
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
As the Church in Jerusalem, which was largely Jewish, is persecuted the Christians disperse to Gentile regions nearby. In Antioch the believers start to move outside of the synagogue and share the message of salvation in Jesus with gentiles too - and many recieve it. Barnabas and Saul are see what is happening and whether it is a genuine movement of the Spirit of God. Delighted at what they discover in these growing Jesus followers Saul and Barnabas spend a year investing in growth and leadership in the church in Antioch.
By Acts chapter 13 there is a strong hub of diverse leaders: teachers and prophets at the church in Antioch listening for God’s “next steps” for them together:
Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
This is how they made major strategic moves - in prayer and fasting. Learning how to listen to the Spirit of God together.
Barnabas and Saul responded with obediant action after God spoke. They travelled throughout the region to: Seleucia, Cyprus, Salamis, Paphos, Perga, Pamphylia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe.
In each place they preached a gospel message in a public space and God did the rest - sometimes there was a warm reception, sometimes resistance, sometimes God worked in healing and miracles other times they were stoned nearly to death. Their obedience to go seeded the Church in the region and as the work spread Paul and Barnabas needed to check in with the elders at Antioch that had sent them out to work together to ask God “what’s next”.
When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,
strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia.
And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia,
and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled.
And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
And they remained no little time with the disciples.
Through corporate prayer and fasting they appointed overseers to all these new baby churches - so that they could grow and mature in faith and not be overly reliant on Paul and Barnabas but learn to rely on the Spirit and multiply God’s work in the world.
We see the mature leadership of the church in Antioch placing a high value of discerning the right people for this mission through the Spirit together.
God honors our individual prayers, certainly, but I think, at least when it comes to leading the Church that we see a special grace come on a Church when it’s people - and most essentially its leaders - are continually returning to united, intentional prayer and fasting. I think possibly it gives God joy as this kind of unity was Jesus’ deepest prayer for his people before he would be crucified and later resurrected. He prayed for his disciples but also for you and I - the followers that would come generation after generation.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
This kind of unity reflects what Jesus hoped for his people. And as we walk in obedience we receive His blessing. Many churches struggle because they don’t have a clear sense of purpose. Corporate prayer and fasting brings together the many gifts and mutual wisdom of the Body of believers under the humble authority of the Spirit of God to discern purpose and next steps.
Often the church is corrupted by leaders or factions with competing agendas that are rooted in worldly perspectives or personal pride or tradition rathar than the purposes of God. Prayer and fasting with humility and repentance wrestles down our pride and helps us put God’s leading and the benefit of the whole people first.
CHALLENGE:
We are in a turning season at CHT. We are thankful for the blessing God has given in these last few years - a lot of healing, a renewed sense of community post-Covid, revitilization of kids & youth ministry, and the development of young leaders especially. But I can feel in my Spirit the shifting of seasons and I know that it’s time for us to ask God: “What’s next”.
We would like to embrace this season as the early church did with an invitation to corporate prayer and fasting with faith that God will shape us through it as we walk humbly before Him.
As Bill mentioned last week Lent is a perfect time to experiment with personal prayer and fasting. I encourage you to find a rhythm for that - maybe a weekly fast - sun up to sun down - to center yourself in Christ, discipline your flesh to increase its ability to resist temptation, and restore your hunger for the things of God.
In addition we want to invite you to corporate prayer. We will spend our Sunday March 30 with that focus here at CHT. I know some of you will be participating in the anniversary at Southmount corps but for those of us that are here prayer will be our focus.
Also: Mark your calendars for a prayer concert April 12 in the evening where we invite you to gather and pray with us then too.
I know, I know, it’s not convienient! It never will be. Prayer and Fasting is always a disruption. But that’s is its design. To force God to the center of our busy schedules, our personal plans, and our comfort and desires. Carving out time for this is intentional and will cost something. But NOT doing it will cost us more.
His faithfulness doesn’t depend on our faithfullness (thank God) but he does bless those who steward faithfully with more to steward - and that’s what I would like to see here. More people meeting Christ, more people maturing in Christ, more diverse leadership to multiply our expression of God’s love in the world through this Church.
LET’S PRAY
